1. Technical Field
The disclosure relates to a tethering system for a child seat to a vehicle seat.
2. Background Art
Under its rule making authority, the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration (NHTSA) has promulgated rules concerning the tethering of child seats within an automotive vehicle. In particular, child seats are provided with a latch strap, which engages with the child seat near a bottom back side of the child seat, and a top tether strap, which is coupled to the top of the child seat. Vehicle seats, which are configured to restrain a child seat intended for children up to 40 pounds, are provided with lower anchors to which the latch strap is attached. The vehicle interior also contains a top anchor to which the top tether strap is secured. The top anchor can be integrated with the seat back, e.g., at the back of the seat or the top of the seat. The top anchor can be mounted in the vehicle roof or other locations within the interior of the vehicle.
Many vehicles have second and third row seating suitable for children. However, not every second or third row vehicle seat is provided with the anchors. Families with multiple children requiring child seats or day care providers may wish to transport more children than the number of seats having anchoring systems. Or, it may be desirable to attach the child seats in locations in the vehicle that are not equipped with anchoring systems for overall passenger convenience and flexibility. One solution would be for the manufacturer to provide an anchoring system at each seat location. However, such a solution increases cost and weight of the vehicle for all customers even though only a small fraction of customers will ever require multiple anchoring systems. And, such a solution does not address the situation that vehicles produced prior to the NHTSA rules do not have such anchoring systems. It would be desirable to properly secure child seats in vehicle seats that do not have factory-installed anchoring systems.